HARDIN— A Hardin High School student-made film is premiering Thursday night, featuring dialogue almost entirely in the Crow language.
The movie is titled “The Sacred Culture of the Apsáalooke Nation”.
Watch the report:
Approximately 20 students worked on the project over the spring and summer, animating the movie with the help of Wonder Media.
High school senior Baylor Pryor had the only English-speaking role, voicing the main character, Wayne.
“Wayne is a Native teenager,” said Pryor. “He doesn't care about being connected to his culture.”
The movie follows Wayne as he goes on a journey to learn the food, language and history of his culture.
Pryor told MTN he and several students his age do not speak Crow.
“(I) kind of relate to the main character, Wayne. I kind of grew up not knowing my culture and all that. As I get older, I want to get more into it,” said Pryor. “My grandma's definitely been teaching me more ever since I told her about this.”
The other roles were voiced by people in the community who speak fluent Crow. Bianka Rock Above, director of Indian Education at Hardin Public Schools, told MTN she connected several Crow-speaking elders with students as the elders voiced the characters.
“Thinking about losing our language, you know, it brings fear, because that's our identity,” said Rock Above. “This project helped, you know, shine the light in our language in a different way.”
According to Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the Crow Tribe’s fluency rate for the Crow language has dropped from 85% to 30%, as of 2019.
Rock Above told MTN she hopes projects like this student film and other opportunities will raise fluency rates.
“We're just looking for different ways to expand it,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s about the kids.”
“The Sacred Culture of the Apsáalooke Nation” is premiering at 7 p.m. Thursday at Harriet’s in Hardin.
Wonder Media will post a link to the movie online Friday.
